Another Man's Wife

“He had this woman in a clinch by the sink.”

A clinch? What?

Nate blinked.

“They were so far gone, they never saw or heard me. I don’t know how I did it, but I managed to tiptoe back to the living room before calling out to Dad that I was home.”

The picture those words conjured up plunged Nate into a different realm of pain than he’d ever experienced before. The kind only a parent can inflict on his child.

“This soon after Mother?” he whispered.

“It gets worse. After dad brought her into the living room and introduced us, he announced that they’re engaged to be married. They’d gone to Denver to pick out her ring.”

Nate felt like he’d gone into an inverted dive and had waited too late to pull out of it.

“Dad said he was glad I’d decided to come home for a surprise visit because that saved him having to phone me with the news.”

“If this woman is someone Mom and Dad knew before the accident, I don’t wa—”

“Noooo. She’s a Texan who came to Colorado a month ago because of a friend’s wedding reception. Apparently she’s never been on a pair of skis. While she was shopping for sunglasses in the ski shop, Dad challenged her to get out on the slopes and try it. He gave her a few lessons, and things went from there.”

At fifty-three, their father was still an attractive man—and he could still outski the best skiers in the area. As early as sixteen he’d been on the U.S. ski team. By the time he’d met their mother five years later, he’d garnered many wins. They were married soon after, and within a year she was pregnant with Nate. People commented on their devotion to each other.

She’d been gone such a short while, it simply hadn’t occurred to Nate that his father would be interested in another woman. Not this soon anyway. The idea of his marrying again…

“Are you still with me?”

“Yes,” Nate murmured, utterly staggered by the news. “Is she divorced, widowed, what?”

“Ms. Pamela Jarrett has never been married. She lives and works on a ranch outside Austin, Texas.”

“What I’m hearing doesn’t make any sense.”

“It does to Dad. Hell, Nate—she’s only eleven years older than I am.”

With a little calculating, Nate realized she was fourteen years younger than their mother had been when she’d died.

“Dad looked so different from the man we saw at the funeral, it’s like another person’s inhabited his body. It made me feel…weird. You know?”

Nate understood exactly what his brother was trying to say. They’d been so busy establishing their own careers, neither of them had settled down to marriage for the first time. Yet their father was already jumping into a second marriage with a younger woman he’d barely met.

“Does Ms. Jarrett know Dad doesn’t have any money except what’s tied up in the business?” Nate’s flare of anger couldn’t be held back. He was stunned to think his father could replace his mother with another woman this quickly.

“I asked him that in private. He told me not to worry about it. She lives on her own piece of the Jarrett ranch.”

His head jerked toward his brother. “What the hell could he be thinking?”

“It’s gone beyond thinking. Our father has the hots for her.” Rick sounded as embittered as Nate felt.

The hots. It was a term younger guys used all the time. But when it was applied to their own father, a man Nate had loved and revered all his life, it sounded crude, distasteful.

“If it’d been anywhere but our home…”

Rick seemed to be reading his mind. “That’s what we get for planning to surprise him,” Nate told him.

“Sorry, man, but I never thought the day would come when I wouldn’t feel free to walk into the house where we were born and raised.”

“You forget we grew up and went away. Isn’t there an old saying that you can never go home again?” Nate was still trying to process these painful new facts. “What’s she like?”

“As different from Mom as you can get.”

His eyes closed tightly. What had happened to love everlasting? “Go on. I’d rather hear it all now and get it over with.”

“Pamela’s a petite brunette. She’s got that Texan drawl.” He shrugged. “She’s nice enough I suppose.”

Anja Soderhelm Hawkins had been a tall, beautiful, athletic blonde. Sometimes when their dad had teased him or Rick because they hadn’t found the right women to marry yet, he’d comment that their mother was probably a difficult act to follow. They’d have to look long and hard to find anyone as perfect.

Interesting how it had only taken him six months to find perfection again.

Texans flocked to Colorado in the winter. When Nate and Rick were growing up, they’d always found a Texan accent amusing, especially on the women who seemed to stuff more words into one minute than any other female they’d encountered. Since neither of their parents were verbose people, Nate couldn’t imagine his dad with a fast-talking Texan.

“Dad’s thinking of moving to the ranch with her, and leaving the house and business to us.”

Nate hadn’t seen that blow coming. His eyes smarted with tears, and he realized that home as he’d known it no longer existed. It made the moment surreal.

He darted Rick a searching glance. “How are you handling it?”

“I’m not.”

“Well, that makes two of us.”

“Dad’s got to be out of his mind!”

“Have they set a date?” Though it nearly killed him, Nate had to ask.

“While they were in Denver, they talked about getting married in Las Vegas. That is, as soon as you and I give the okay. When I told him you were arriving tonight, Dad looked kind of relieved.”

Nate could think of nothing to say.

“Dad said he would’ve told us about Pamela sooner,” Rick went on, “but he’s been putting it off, since he knew our feelings must be pretty raw because of Mom.”

“He’s right about that. Good grief—she has to have some kind of hold over him. We left him alone too long after Mom died. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s had a nervous breakdown and this woman’s taking advantage of his vulnerability.”

After a few moments’ silence, Rick eventually spoke. “As I see it, there’s only one reason Dad would want to act this fast.”

Nate’s thought had been the same. “No matter what, we’re not going to let him run off to Nevada because he’s afraid she might already be pregnant,” he said. “None of our family’s friends or acquaintances would understand. Dad will have to arrange to be married here.”

“Just not at our house,” Rick whispered. This time there were tears in his voice.